A Memory of the Southern Seas, Australian history

According to Wikipedia: "George Lewis Becke (18 June 1855 18 February 1913) was an Australian short-story writer and novelist… In January 1892 Becke returned to Sydney and persuaded by Ernest Favenc and J. F. Archibald began to contribute stories to The Bulletin, the first of which was 'Tis in the Blood' appearing in the 6 May 1893 edition. A collection of these stories, By Reef and Palm, was published in England (1894), followed by The Ebbing of the Tide in (1896). Becke went to London about the beginning of 1896, helped by Archibald and William Macleod of the Bulletin who advanced him the sum of £200, and he remained in Europe for around 15 years, during which time a large number of collections of short stories and a few novels and stories for boys were published. Becke was fairly paid by the magazines for his stories, but his books were always sold outright and never on a royalty basis, he was not a wealthy man. He went to Auckland, New Zealand, in 1908 and lived there for about a year."